From our Thousand Island lake campsite, we ascended to the Ritter-Banner Saddle via North Glacier Pass. The snow was pretty soft and crampons weren't really necessary at any point. After bagging Banner, we climbed the right chute of the north face, then, when the classic ramp looked a little dicey due to snow, we traversed around and climbed the broad but steep west face directly to the summit. Great climbing and a fantastic view = elated.

Climbed with Charles from camp at Catherine Lake. Waited 2 hours for the sun to soften the snow around middle Ritter Lake, but still too much frozen high-angle snow on the "class 2" west slope, so we climbed class 3 rock, got off route and corrected. Decided that going down the North Face would be a lot easier than our ascent route. Had a little trouble figuring out the route down, but finally made it back to camp at 6 pm and back to Agnew Meadows at 1:30 AM. We 2 climbed Mt. Davis the day before, and camped with Kathy, Shawn, and Peter. Views from both peaks were beautiful. More pictures will be posted at http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/553569003EXsQSQ as time permits.

Came from Agnew Meadows as part of Sierra Challenge. We came up from the saddle after summiting Banner and went up the right-hand chute. Very enjoyable climb on solid class 3 rock and descended down the SE face.

I climbed Banner and Ritter in a day from Agnew Meadows. Total time car-to-car was 13.5 hrs. From the saddle I went up the right chute on the North Face, then followed the class 3 arete to the summit. Descended SE glacier route and hiked back to the car. Beautiful area, I really enjoyed the hike.

It was a great climb alongwith Basu(balajisv), Andrew(sierramtngoat) and Ritesh (Tau). We started from Lake Ediza at 7.30 AM. The snow in the chute going up to the RB Saddle had softened a little since it was late in the day. From the saddle the snow patch leading to the bottom of the chutes was quite icy. We took the right-hand chute but then took the ramp across the North Face. My best trip in the Sierra Nevadas so far ! The descent was tight as the snow got a lot harder but we made it down to the tree-line as it got dark. I wish the future holds more trips to the Sierras for me - unfortunately its a long long way from North Carolina :(

After climbing Banner seven years ago while working at the nearby Red's Meadow Pack Station, I am happy to have finally conquered its superior twin. We started the trip off with the luxury of my mom and friend (our posse) carrying the heaviest of our load (the tent and jam-packed bear canister) by horseback to Lake Ediza. We made it to Ediza in about 3 hours and 45 minutes. We camped above the timberline on the Northwest edge of the lake where we were a little more protected from the wind and closer to Ritter.

We started the summit day at 7:00 AM. We headed up to the Lower Gully and planned to follow Alan Ritter's route description as closely as possible. We ended up doing things a little differently. We shot off of to the right of the Lower Gully just beyond the trees on the Tree Rock and over the ridge that Alan Ritter suggests you go behind. We found a non-challenging route through the grass ledges that led us over to the top of a very loose chute that spit us out onto a steep snow slope well below the snow bowl. Crampons made the slope an easy descent. From here we made a diagonal shot to the windridge, staying in crampons the entire time. We crossed over a 20 foot wide tongue of rock extending from the pinnacle--easily, but carefully crossed in crampons. From here we headed towards the three toed buttress and made our way up an easy Class 3 chute just to the right of the main chute (Owen's). From the top of the chute we crossed the relatively flat snow field and slowly made our way to the summit staying off and to the left of the upper snow field.

The descent was a bit more exciting. After debating, we picked what we thought might be the same chute we ascended. As we descended, we quickly noticed that the chute was much steeper, narrower, and more technical. Although the chute became more intimidating, we kept descending hoping not to have to climb back up it. When we got to the bottom we knew exactly where we were--the Dead End Chute. We had the option of strapping on our crampons and descending a steep finger of the glacier that reached up into the chute and was barely wide enough to stand on with a 15 foot drop on either side. After stepping onto it and slipping, we stepped back onto the rock, took the crampons off, and crossed over a thin, vertical rock wall and climbed back onto the glacial finger that extends up into Secor Chute.

From here, we made a smooth descent down the glacier and over to the SE Pinnacle. I did manage to do one face plant on the SE Glacier. We stayed low on the snow bowl after crossing the rock outcropping and made a diagonal approach to the rock ledges. We went straight for the trees on the Tree Rock and picked our way down the ledges well below our turn-off on the way up the summit. We made it back to camp just before 6:00 PM.

After two hours of rest, we put our headlamps on and headed off on what we thought would be our night journey back to Agnew Meadows. After a wrong turn and 30 minutes of wasted time, we caught back up with the trail that was to take us back around Ediza and onto the main trail. Shortly after getting on the trail, I shined my headlamp right into the eyes of a bear standing directly in our path about 50 to 70 feet ahead of us. The bear stood frozen for a few seconds, as did I, before advancing a few feet our way. We slowly backed up and decided to pull out our sleeping bags for a peaceful night under the stars. Fortunately, it was a warm and still night. We hit the trail at 6:00 the next morning and had a slow 3 hour and 45 minute trip back to the parking lot.

Ritter was a great peak, with routes for all levels of climbers. It helps to have an idea of how to get to the summit, but I don't think that any of the 4 to 6 parties who summited that day took the same route, and most of us came down a different route than we went up.

Climbed with Balaji, Raj, and Tau under perfect weather. The snow was hard throughout the day requiring crampons for the ascent and descend; we found ourselves continually taking our crampons off/on because of the large gaps between snow patches. The right chute of the NF is class 2/3, however, the more difficult lines were solid so we stuck to those. The ramp that traverses the NF is worth checking out.